Genius - Installment II - The Measure of Mind

© 2013 – J C, An Anonymous CFO. All rights reserved.

Can intelligence be measured? Ask a psychometrician–one specializing in the field of “mental measurement”–and the answer would be a resounding “Yes!” Ask ten philosophers to define intelligence, however, and you’d almost certainly get ten different, and perhaps conflicting, definitions. Such "technicalities" aside, the psychometrician’s instrument of choice for gauging intelligence is, of course, the IQ test. Now, many would posit (or, at least, agree) that a genius is simply one who manifests exceptional intelligence, and thus is one of extremely high IQ. This, however, can be at odds with the convention of recognizing those of great and inspiring intellectual or artistic achievement as geniuses. Consider the case of William Shockley and Luis Alvarez. In the 1920s, each was administered an IQ test in connection with psychologist Lewis Terman's now famous study of gifted children, intended to, among other things, identify future Nobel laureates. Neither William nor Luis demonstrated even the minimum 135 IQ necessary to join the Terman group, sometimes referred to as Terman’s “Termites”; nevertheless, both went on to become physicists of renown and Nobel laureates. Moreover, not one of the Terman group, comprising more than 1,500 gifted children with IQs ranging from 135 to 180+, went on to garner a Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

So, do IQ tests measure intelligence? I would put it a bit differently and suggest that they quantify certain manifestations of intelligence–rapid processing, for example–while missing or minimizing other manifestations, such as intuitive sensibility, which serves the true visionary like a "sixth sense". The preceding case, taken in isolation, is merely interesting–of little, if any, significance. I suspect, however, that were it taken in broader context, it would serve to underscore the incapacity of IQ tests to identify those most able to beget revolutionary productions of the mind. 

Genius - Installment I - The Blessed "Naïve"

© 2013 – J C, An Anonymous CFO. All rights reserved.

Geniuses tend to know quite a bit, and, as most of us have learned, “knowledge is power”. So, as one might expect, these luminaries make up a pretty powerful, albeit, relatively sparsely populated, group of problem solvers. Interestingly, as it turns out, all of that horsepower can sometimes be an impediment to discovery. One particular problem exemplifies this rather nicely and is stated thus: Using ordinary permanent magnets, how do you stably levitate one such magnet above another? Anyone who’s had even a modicum of interest in the peculiar behavior of magnets has tried this repeatedly, perhaps even obsessively, only to become frustrated as the would-be floater, without fail, flipped over and slammed into the intended supporting magnet, polar north against polar south. It is a problem whose solution most in the scientific realm would now characterize as “relatively simple”; yet, remarkably, no one–not even the scientists–were up to the task. Perhaps the scientists can be forgiven. After all, they'd entered a state of suspended curiosity. They’d learned that a theorem of renowned nineteenth century mathematician Samuel Earnshaw prohibited the arrangement of permanent magnets in such a way that a magnet of that arrangement could be held in static levitation entirely through the effect of that arrangement. Ever since, physicists had been of the mind that any attempt to produce levitation with permanent magnets merely served as testament to one’s scientific illiteracy. Then, in 1983, inventor and ostensible member of the American Society for the Scientifically Illiterate, Roy M. Harrigan, patented what was to become known as the first spin-stabilized magnetic levitation device, employing permanent magnets and nothing else of consequence. His invention, an elegant display of eye-popping, fantasy-feeding flight, is now the popular levitating spinning top device known as the Levitron®. Now, before you release your inner cynic and note that the likelihood of such a discovery occurring in the dimly lit outskirts of academia is tantamount to finding a particular grain of sand in the Sahara, know that lightning struck twice with this very discovery. In 1984, a college drop-out named Joseph Chieffo, who was unaware of Harrigan’s patented (but little known) air-borne revelation, also discovered spin-stabilized magnetic levitation.

The Levitron® - Courtesy of img finder